Tetris is a puzzle game. Bejeweled is a puzzle game. Candy Crush is a bejeweled clone.

Basically when you go to wikipedia and open any game on there, there is a genre info. Those are genres.Sandbox is a genre.

And I kinda reject the notion that Minecraft created a new sub genre, because if that would be true then EVERY game would create its own genre and all games that are painfully similar are within those genre. - Its semantics really, but its all about "lets do something that is already popular, so we will be popular as well"There are good clonesIts just that I would never get overly excited over a clone; Doesnt matter if they added like 3 new features or whatever

Funny thing is I dont even want overly innovative gameplay or these artsy indie games... D:But I guess both ends of the spectrum are bad.

If the definition of genre wasn't so busted, then we'd actually be able to figure out the difference between a game with a similar "genre" and a "clone."

For me, Minecraft is the ultimate sandbox game. There are mini-games in it, but for the most part you have freedom to move and build whatever you please in the game world. There are also items that you can create and mold, just like there are collectable items in GTA5 or Saints Row. Minecraft, fits in the sandbox "genre".

As for clones, all the games that have been mentioned here (Starbound, Terrania, Minecraft, Infiniminer) are mostly all games that are part of the Sandbox genre. However, clones are different because they usually come in after the original game became popular, and they have about 90% of the look and feel of the game they are copying. (Just like a lot of the cube world open projects here... even though they were learning experiences, they were also a bit on the clone side of things).

Games leave a lot for personal opinion, however. I think of games a lot differently from "who is copying who". I usually look at it from the perspective of "what new features are they trying to bring to the genre." If a game brings enough elements that are different, then it usually gives me enough to go back and play it again. Clones usually don't do that for me, so I just find no need to play them.

Starbound is a really, REALLY good game though! Minecraft, Gnomoria, Terraria, Starbound... they're all just fantastic time wasters. Although I slap myself on the wrist to call it a "waste" of time, they're all games in which you actually build something and thus have something to show for the time invested.

I got bored watching the Starbound trailer. 1 minute of a guy walking in various terrain that pretty much looks the same? A flashlight. Lighting is cool, but I need more. Some demos of water. People building stuff, with a cluttered inventory. I just didn't find the trailer compelling. But then, I never got into Minecraft either.

The reason I enjoy Minecraft and Starbound is really because you have something to show for the hours played. Sure, I can go play a FPS and kill a bunch of people and show off my new weapons and KD, but its much more fun to me to build something, especially with other people. Even though Minecraft is viewed as sort of a childish game, I still love the idea of it, even if I don't play many video games anymore.

I think its just how we conduct our personal lives, because I barely have time to game anyway (because I code most of the time), so I never really want to play a game with an actual story. Sandboxes and FPS games are my friends because you can play a quick match or build a house or go exploring for half an hour. That's usually the extent of my gaming time!

To me, Minecraft ended up becoming this generation's Doom, but on a smaller scale. I don't mean this in terms of gameplay, and I'm not trying to compare two different genres.

The modding community of Minecraft was and still is huge, and there are many games coming up based off of its concepts. Some of those games have become quite innovative (Such as Terraria and Starbound IMO). And honestly, I wish for more of these games going in that same sort of world style.

To say that 'Starbound = Terraria = Minecraft = Infiniminer' is silly. This is how games are made.

It seems like at first our goal of games was to make them very realistic and profitable.Now that we already have very realistic game engines, we just worry about making a game that's very similar to or better than [Insert Game Here].

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